"He's one of those guys that can create something out of nothing
and he definitely did that there," Alfredsson said. "I had a pretty good look.
I had the best seat in the house. Great pick up. Puck is behind him, he picks it
up with one hand, put it through his legs.

"He's really shifty. He kind of confuses. He looks like he's
going to go this way and goes the other way. The 'D' is kind of indecisive who's
going to take him. He gets room to take a good shot. It's a great shot. I guess
one heckuva performance."

And keep in mind Datsyuk still isn't back to full strength
after missing 30 games during the second half of the season with a troublesome
knee injury he doesn't expect to be recovered from until next season.

Yet Datsyuk still possess the skills that make him one of
the world's most gifted players and he continues to amaze long-time Red Wings
who have seen him do what few others can.

"The puck probably went four or five feet behind him," said
defenseman Niklas Kronwall, a teammate for 10 of Datsyuk's 12 seasons in Detroit. "He was able to
pick it up, do things no one else can do. We've seen it before and he did it
again.

"(Justin Abdelkader) did a great job pushing their far D man
down, which created some more room for Pav and when he shot the puck, (Boston
goaltender Tuukka) Rask didn't see much."

Datsyuk took a pass from Johan Franzen while breaking out of
the Red Wings' zone – the puck was behind him, as Kronwall said – and he skated
through the neutral zone before cutting to his left as he entered the Boston
zone.

Datsyuk fired a wrist shot past three Boston defenders from
the top of the left faceoff circle and beat Rask with 3:01 left in the third
period.

It didn't surprise coach Mike Babcock.

"Well, I've had him for a long time," Babcock said. "Obviously
he's a world-class player and he's coming back from an injury, which is obvious
when you see him out there. But he still can do some very good things and he
knows how to play without the puck.

"He's playing against a good player like (Patrice Bergeron) ...
a heck of a player. He knows how to play and he makes it hard. Abby did a great
job, drove the middle created space for him. I thought Abby and the Mule were
gritty today and they were heavy so that helps Pav."

Datsyuk was his usual low-key self afterward, saying the goal was part
of a game that made it "nice to watch NBC."

"We know we need to shoot
everything," Datsyuk said. "They shoot everything and you know it's a game
one-shot different. I just shoot and actually we make a nice play on the blue
line and Abby made a nice screen for me.

"We just need to forget
about this one and just keep going next game and we know they'll come back more
aggressive."